Second Chance: An End Storm Short Story (2013) by Maz Marik - Horror Short Story Review

I had an inkling that I had another End Storm short story waiting to be read for review at the culmination of my 13 year trek to read the other short story I had; The Gathering. This second story, again by Maz Marik is Second Chance. This one too runs parallel to the early events of End Storm, and feels like a side story to the first short, with it showing events immediately before and after that one.

Homeless petty criminal Kyle has once again been arrested for shoplifting, and has been taken to Crawly Police Station where he is well known. He isn't too upset as he knows he will at least get a warm cell and a hot meal. A terrible unexplained event occurs in London, the news of which puts the police into a panic. With more important things to worry about, they release Kyle. Outside he bumps into a friend, and together they head to a storage unit to hide from the chaos that has now reached the town and caused much of the population there to turn inexplicably manically violent. Spotted by other non-infected, their numbers are soon swelled, with some of the survivors deciding to head out and find supplies, with the aim to then retreat out to the countryside where it is hoped there will be less crazies. One of these survivors is Alice, who heads off to the events of The Gathering, while others decide to head on over to a nearby mall.

This was another enjoyable story, though felt a bit surplus to requirements - not really doing anything different from the first short, other than to introduce new characters (who again are most likely side characters from the main novel). I did like Kyle, his story was only the focus for the beginning, but it was a neat introduction to how the emergency services were responding to the mayhem. The sub plot of the police was may favourite, the only issue being a character who was assumed to have died, only for him to pop up again in a near identical scene where this time he is actually finished off.

With the infected having less of a central presence, the horror and violence of their actions was much reduced. Still did not make me once wish that I was going through this particular zombie apocalypse. Second Chance didn't really do anything too different, while I did enjoy reading this, I also got a little sense of déjá vu.

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V/H/S/2 (2013) - Horror Anthology Film Review

I have a scheduled list of exactly when I am going to watch films sent to me for review. When the screener turns out not to work I always give myself the option to instead watch a film of my own choosing. I love anthology films, and have long wanted to work my way through the V/H/S series of horror anthologies. I can't believe it was so long ago, but back in 2022 I reviewed V/H/S, and now is the turn of its sequel - V/H/S/2.

As the title suggests, this anthology series uses the found footage genre as the concept that links the shorts together. I felt the first film showed promise, so hoped this sequel would build on the strengths.

Contained within this is a moderately sized wraparound story as well as four short films. The wraparound is titled 'Tape 49' and was written and directed by Simon Barrett (the writer of wraparound segment 'Tape 56' from the first V/H/S and writer of You're Next). Here, a private investigator named Larry (Laurence Michael Levine) has been hired to find a missing student at the request of his mother. He heads to a house with his assistant where the mother thought might be one of the locations her son could be. After breaking in, they find the place deserted, though a video they find on a laptop point to the missing young man having been there. While Larry searches the house, his assistant finds a bunch of strange VHS tapes and decides to check them out to see if they offer any clues. The tapes she watches then makes up the four short films. Much like the first movie, this wraparound segment was functional as a means for the shorts to appear, but the story wasn't particularly exciting, nor does it end up going anywhere surprising.

 After an eight minute intro, the first short begins. Titled 'Phase I Clinical Trials', this one being directed by Adam Wingard (V/H/S, You're Next), who also stars in the lead role, again, with the story written by Barrett. Wingard plays a blind young man who has recently had an operation to implant a chip in his brain that will allow him to see. Wanting to monitor the man's new implants, the company who installed the devices are recording everything that he sees. This reminded me of a Japanese film I once saw about a woman who begins to see ghosts after an eye transplant. The same thing happens here, with Larry able to see ghosts with his new 'eye'. It wasn't too enjoyable as I didn't think the very physical acting ghosts looked that scary. I thought the plot of a woman also able to see ghosts appearing (Hannah Hughes) was rushed through a bit, leading to an obvious finish.
After seventeen minutes (roughly) it is back to the wraparound before heading swiftly to second short film 'A Ride in the Park'. I was interested in this one as it is a zombie found footage film, obviously I love zombie films. Taking place in woodland, this sees a man (played by Jay Saunders) on his mountain bike accidentally getting caught up in an undead outbreak. What made this stand out a bit was the protagonist actually dies not long into the film, with nearly the rest of the short showing things from the now zombified man's perspective, as him and his new found friends gate crash a children's birthday party!. Directed by Gregory Hale, this was straight forward, but zombies are my favourite movie monster. I liked how the zombie occasionally gets reminded of the person it used to be, and the effects were decent enough, but not too memorable. 

'Safe Haven' is the third film and was by far the best one here. This Indonesian horror (directed by Gareth Huw Evans) has a film crew going to the remote headquarters of a sex cult. There becomes a triple threat of danger, what initially appears 'just' to be a deranged cult soon devolves into the undead once again appearing, and a rampaging demon. I loved this, I loved how crazy everything got. Certainly didn't expect the twists and turns within this. The story at twenty nine minutes contained a lot, I felt this would have worked equally well as a feature length film. A highlight of this was a room full of men who all commit suicide by gunshot at the exact same time, looked great on camera.
This just leaves the final film, which also happened to be the least interesting. 'Slumber Party Alien Abduction' was directed by Jason Eisener and mainly took the form of pranks a brother and sister were playing on each other, before the arrival of zombie-like aliens. My issue with this was the sheer amount of camera glitches and shaky hand camera action meant it was really hard to tell what was going on. This comes to a head with the lengthy final part which went on and on and on far longer than I felt it needed to be.

Much like the first film, V/H/S/2 showed potential but was a bit of a mixed bag. The wraparound story felt just as uninspired, but 'Safe Haven' was a definite highlight, worth the price of admission alone. With some many films in the series, I'm sure it will find its footing, maybe with the third entry? V/H/S/2 is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

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Dead Island: Riptide - Definitive Edition (2016) - Zombie Horror Video Game Review (Xbox One)

You have to feel sorry for the Dead Island series of first person survival horror zombie video games. The release of Dying Light in 2015 really took the wind out of its sails, an extremely similar game but looking better, controlling better, and having a better story to it. Dead Island will always hold a special place in my heart though, when I first re-discovered the person who would become my best friend, she was raving about a Dead Island novel, completely unaware it had been based on a game.
With Dead Island 2 recently heading to Xbox Game Pass I figured it was about time I caught up with the story of the previous games I had yet to play. Dead Island: Riptide was a confusing entry when it first came out. While it seemed to be a sequel to the first game, the lack of a number '2' led to many people (myself included) unsure if this was a new game or a definitive version of the first game. Speaking with a friend about this recently, he summed it up perfectly, describing it as a stand-alone expansion. I also felt at the time that I wasn't sure if I wanted to return to the world of the game so soon after having completed the first, especially as this really did look like it was more of the same. Spoilers for Dead Island to follow.

I do love it when a sequel picks up immediately after the end of the first, and that is very much what happens here. Having left the zombie infested island of Banoi in a helicopter, the four survivors (Xian Mei, Logan, Purna and Sam.B) find their chopper running out of fuel, spying a military vessel they decide to land on it. Their relief is short lived when they find themselves being imprisoned below deck once it is known they are immune so that experiments can be performed on them. Knocked unconscious while resisting, they awaken some time later to find the ship overrun with the undead. Out of control, the ship has crashed into the nearby island of Palanai where the survivors discover to their dismay that the zombie virus has also ravaged this place. Forming an uneasy alliance with Colonel Hardy (the person who was in charge of the ship), the group make it their aim to travel to a military base in the nearby city of Henderson, where it is hoped they will finally find sanctuary.

It may be a new island this sequel takes place on, but it is very much business as usual. Unlike the first game that was split into a variety of areas, this time there are two main ones, the flooded jungle and the city of Henderson. It took me around fifteen hours to complete this, with about two thirds of the game being in the jungle, with the city both smaller in size and with less missions to it, though very well designed. My initial thoughts were very negative. Despite playing the Xbox One 'Definitive Edition' the game still looked very ugly. Even worse were sound issues that led to characters constantly speaking over each other in cutscenes, and music that would get stuck and keep repeating the same few bars over and over again. I played the game as Xian Mei as I did previously, but it doesn't really matter what character you pick as you only really get proper story in the cutscenes. 

The focus is mainly on melee weapons that you can get blueprints to upgrade at work benches to do all manner of status effects, such as poison, fire, and electricity. There is a big skill tree that soon has you much stronger, being split into three segments, the rage metre part (once a bar is filled up you basically become invincible for a limited time), the attack part, and the healing part. Fighting zombies is a load of fun, you lop off limbs and heads constantly. There were 'boss' style undead as well, but when it is so easy to run past these rather than fight them, their inclusion felt a bit pointless. The big new thing for Riptide is the defence missions, where you and A.I survivors must survive against waves of zombies attacking wherever your current base happens to be. To help you can set up electrified fences and gun turrets, but this is all very slight and unexciting. At least, despite being a bunch of these they were all easy to complete.

The meat of the game has you completing a variety of quests and side quests in order to make your way to Henderson and find safety. The side quests take you to optional areas, but the quests themselves were unexciting and felt like far more could have been done with them. The core story was fine, but unexciting, your mission to safety had already been done better in Dead Island, so it felt like things were just repeating here. There was nothing that occurs here that felt remotely original or compelling, I didn't care about any of the characters, and it leads up to a final boss fight that didn't feel like a great way to end the game. Dead Island: Riptide hasn't aged too poorly, it does look dated, but gameplay wise it is perfectly fine. This only really exists for people who loved the first game and wanted more. The setting felt familiar but not as fun to traverse, with less interesting looking areas, the story was a low effort repeat, and the revelations about the source of the virus were very generic. Least it is out of the way now, so will move onto apparently terrible prequel, Escape Dead Island, which I am going to have to dig out my Playstation 3 to play.

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Undeath Syndrome Surveillance and Diagnostics (2013) by Bryan Way - Zombie Horror Book Review

Undeath Syndrome Surveillance and Diagnostics might have a very dry title, but that is because it is a (fictional) government document that has been written to try and help those in charge deal with the zombie outbreak that has occurred in author Bryan Way's Life After universe. This forty six page document isn't actually available for purchase, but the author created it as a kind of bible for his series, with the rules and observations contained within determining in many ways the extent to which his version of the undead are able to act and operate.
From a geeky perspective this was very exciting to me, as this is the self same document that former national guard soldier, Anderson, is handed in the excellent second Life After novel, Life After: The Void (a mild obscure spoiler from that novel).

Going along with the dry title, much of this document is appropriately dryly written, something essential to give it a believable feel. It establishes that the outbreak did indeed originate in the graveyard near the high school that Grey (the protagonist of the main novels) had been visiting, the outbreak that was described in short story Life After: The Cemetery Plot. It also goes into more detail on how the virus was spread, with many of the buses leaving the high school bringing with it unknowingly infected people who spread it far and wide. The document reveals that the virus has spread worldwide, and was fun to see a little bit about what has happened to the U.K (where I am based).
It is spread between giving details on how the outbreak started, and a more deep look into just how the zombies act. Part of this hints at the setting of short story Life After: The Maze, with the cold emotionless reporting here only hinting at what happened in that location to get the results. It was quite cool that The Maze was written in 2021, though the origins of that story were birthed in this document.

Undeath Syndrome Surveillance and Diagnostics also includes charts, maps, and statistics that all work in making it feel like a real thing. While it may have been needfully dull in places, I found it fascinating the Way had created this as an aid in shaping his world. As a fan of the series, this was cool to read and recognise bits that related to events that had happened in the novels and short stories. If you're a fan of the series and get the opportunity to check this out, then it's well worth a read.

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A Field in England (2013) - Horror Film Review

I first read about A Field in England around a month ago on Whatculture and immediately knew it was a film I had to watch. Directed by Ben Wheatley (Free Fire, Kill List), and co-written by him, along with Amy Jump, this horror period piece featured a bunch of actors I mostly knew for comedic roles. While this certainly has lots of moments of black humour, overall this is just about played more straight than silly.

The film takes place in England during the English Civil War in the 17th century. Whitehead (Reece Shearsmith - Inside No.9, The League of Gentlemen TV shows) is an alchemist's assistant who has found himself caught up in the civil war after being sent on a mission for his master. Hiding from the violence, and more specifically his commander, Trower (Julian Barratt - The Mighty Boosh), the cowardly man soon encounters three soldiers from the opposing side, Cutler (Ryan Pope), seasoned career soldier Jacob (Peter Ferdinando - Ghost in the Shell), and simpleton, Friend (Richard Glover - Rogue One, Malevolence). Putting aside their differences, Cutler leads the men in a mutual desertion, stating the goal is to go to an ale house. Instead, Cutler secretly is working for the sinister alchemist, O'Neil (Michael Smiley - The World's End, Spaced TV series), who turns out to be the man that Whitehead had been ordered to locate, due to him having stolen his master's research. O'Neil and Cutler take the men prisoner, with O'Neil stating that there is a treasure hidden in the field with which he has set up camp.

I love an intriguing title, which was what initially drew me to this, even before discovering there were some comedic actors I like starring in it. Well, some of them were anyway, despite a high billing, Barratt was only in the film for a couple of minutes at the very start, I had hoped for more for him. Thankfully the other cast members were all great in their own way. Glover brings kindness and light to his scenes, playing the role of a man who lives up to his name of Friend, he also brings a lot of the less dark comedy to the movie. Shearsmith was the main protagonist, a devoutly religious coward who is out of his depth, having lived most his life around books. O'Neil was great as the antagonist, almost but not quite stealing every scene he appeared in. I felt a bit bad that Cutler and Jacob become accidentally interchangeable to me, several times in the film I had gotten these characters mixed up due to them looking quite similar to each other.

The entire film is in black and white, and certainly lives up to the title as the whole movie takes place in a field. Not having the highest budget, the whole civil war aspect is glossed over due to it occuring the opposite side of a hedgerow, so it is just sounds of battle that are heard with nothing really shown, outside of a few explosions. This was a low burn horror, and one that relied for the first two thirds almost exclusively on the actors, the field itself is completely nondescript, apart from O'Neil's tent. This was also something that become increasingly arthouse in style, with the trappings of that sub-genre, such as some full frontal nudity, dizzyingly abstract editing for some of the more tripper scenes, and a plot that was very undefined, it really is left up to the viewer to piece together their own interpretations  of what exactly is happening. Personally, I put a lot of the surreal weirdness that occurs down to the mushrooms the hungry deserters ingest early into the film, with them showing definite signs of that fungus having 'magical' properties.

Elements of the filmmaking I really enjoyed, the best moments being these very strange and striking sinister tableaus that has the characters standing in purposeful poses, not moving, but not paused images, while the camera focuses on different elements of the staged scene. These felt like they were designed to evoke a certain feeling, and I lived for them, the highlight moments of the film. There was a sense of  mystique to what was happening, and helping this feeling was a perfectly crafter soundtrack that fitted the vibe so incredibly well. Special effects were sparse but used effectively, one that had a character's face exploding outwards stood out in its startling use.

For all that A Field in England gets right, it's fair to say the lack of much explanation for the story led to moments of despairing confusion for me. The actors were strong in their roles, and I liked how the language they use appears relevant to the time, rather than altered to make their lines easier to understand. I had hoped for something that had more happening, things do ramp up for a more thrilling final act, but sometimes this went a little too arthouse for my liking. Still, this was a memorable film, the first horror I have ever seen set during this particular time period in England, and one that achieved what it sets out to do, even if it became occasionally a little hard to follow. 

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Shadowrun Returns (2022) - Cyberpunk Video Game Review (XBox Series X)

Despite the title, Shadowrun Returns isn't actually a sequel, instead it is a video game adaptation of the Shadowrun board game. Further research suggests this may actually be a sequel after all, albeit, a sequel to a SNES/Megadrive game from the early 1990s. This game originally came out in 2013, but this year has seen the release of a remastered version of the game, alongside its two expansions (which were released as standalone titles). You may be wondering why a non-horror game is being reviewed here, that is for two reasons, firstly that dystopian futures are not too far removed from apocalypses (that are prime for being covered), secondly, I damn well love everything cyberpunk.

The game takes place in Seattle in the later half of the 21st century, a world where megacorporations run the world. So far so cyberpunk, the difference here is that the world of fantasy has been merged with it. Alongside hacking and cyberspace you also have magic and demons, as well as typical fantasy beings such as orcs, elves and dwarves. You play as a Shadowrunner (I think they are basically mercenaries) who has been sent a pre-recorded message from a former partner, Sam informing them of their own death. From beyond the grave they have requested that you bring their murderer to justice, with a large sum of money being the reward for doing so. It soon becomes clear that Sam was murdered by a serial killer, someone who has links to very powerful people who are set on irreversibly altering the landscape of the world.

So, Shadowrun Returns is an isometric tactical role playing game. Combat takes place on a grid system with your three action points allocated to moving your character around, shooting at enemies and using special abilities and items. The combat is basically the same as that of Gears: Tactics, but this part of the game has been merged with a more traditional RPG element. The game is split into chapters, each putting you and your team into a small area to either do some investigating or fighting enemies. This is dialogue heavy with conversations often being more detailed than you may expect, I kind of got Planescape Torment vibes. Rather than get experience points you instead are given karma points for doing actions such as completing mission objectives and surviving encounters. These points can be pumped into a series of skill trees that let you do everything from becoming better skilled at using weapons, to having better magic and better cyberspace skills. Talking of cyberspace, this is a whole different area of the game you can travel to optionally. Here you fight computer programs and can summon your own programs to fight alongside you.

Life After: The Arising (2013) by Bryan Way - Zombie Horror Book Review

Life After: The Arising is a book I've been reading for quite some time. As always, I am slow at reading books, mainly due to only reading them on my half hour lunch breaks in my day job. This was written by Bryan Way and is the first in his Life After series. I currently also have a trio of short stories set in the same world which I will be looking at after a short break to read a couple of other novels.

University student Jeff Grey has travelled to his former high school in order to watch his younger girlfriend Julia participate in a multi-school battle of the marching bands. During the event however disaster strikes with the sudden arrival of a horde of flesh eating zombies. In the panic and confusion many of the attendees are killed or escape in vehicles, but a few survivors, led by Grey seek refuge in a rooftop greenhouse. Eventually this small group are joined by an old friend of Grey's; Anderson, who is a member of the national guard, whose military knowhow proves to be invaluable, Rich, a homeless man who used to drive school buses, as well as Julia, a nurse. With the world gone to ruin, and with seemingly no help on its way to assist, the small group set out to gather supplies and find somewhere safe to hunker down.

I'm not going to lie, to begin with I was really unsure about this novel, the first act made it feel like it really wasn't going anywhere, while with the protagonist you can't really argue that he isn't a bit of a fool. What I began to realise The Arising does so well however is that it felt like a boring portrayal of a zombie apocalypse. Maybe I could use a better word, but I don't mean boring as a slight against the novel or indeed the writing. The story wasn't dull at all, nor was it written badly, instead I mean boring in that the group of characters presented here have a lot of luck and good fortune (in terms of a world ending undead outbreak), meaning their struggles are not too great. At times it felt like this group were going about their day to day business, while far more traditional zombie survival excitement and escapades where happening with a group of characters that we never even heard of. There are a couple of moments where other survivors are fleetingly seen, I liked to think these would have been the protagonists of another book. While our group sit around discussing the concept of religion and of evolution for pages at a time, I imagined this other group doing no end of the type of high stakes events typically found in a zombie story.
Of course this theory loses some traction in some of the more high threat moments, but this is the zombie apocalypse, even people who manage to do nearly exactly the correct things are going to find themselves in peril every now and again.

C.A.M (2013) - Found Footage Horror Film Review

C.A.M is a found footage horror written and co-directed by Steph Du Melo (As A Prelude to Fear) along with Larry Downing. I was surprised to see this was released in 2013 as it felt strangely prescient to what the world has gone through in the past couple of years. Here you have a contagious virus spread via airborne particles, with the infected exhibiting flu like symptoms. This would also be an anti-vaxxers wet dream as this very much plays along the lines of any kind of vaccine for a viral outbreak perhaps having sinister side effects.

The film is set out as a mockumentary about a viral outbreak at a remote meat packing plant that was covered up by the government. The host, titled as Alt Media Interviewer has managed to get hold of an exclusive interview with a medical worker (Michael Swatton) who was on the scene. Intercut with this interview the found footage from a camera crew and special forces police squad has been pieced together to show the real events of what happened. The two camera operators, Jo (Charlotte Curwood) and Kyle (Tom Ware) had been hired to follow the special forces squad into the containment zone in order to make it look to any outsiders like it was just a training exercise that was going on. It soon becomes clear that something terrible is unfolding, the squad encounter extremely aggressive infected people who attack them on sight. With radio contact to outside the quarantine zone cut off, the squad must find a way to escape the madness.

There some elements of C.A.M that I really liked and some parts that I wish in a modern day setting to remain confined to the old style of found footage horrors. There is lots and lots of shaky hand cam footage here that legitimately made me feel queasy, I had just drank a strong cup of coffee when watching this so that added to my sick feeling. Thankfully the shaky hand cam only makes up around a quarter of the film as a whole, but whenever Jo or Kyle became the people the film was following I had to frequently look away from it. What worked much much better was the police squad's helmet cam. This footage looked fantastic, for one thing it was a whole lot less shaky, but it also brought you into the story a whole lot more than camera operators. I kind of got to wishing that Jo and Kyle had been cut out completely as the police squad were great characters, I got a vague feel for the team from the original Resident Evil movie. Characters such as 'Princess' (Jamie Langlands - As A Prelude to Fear) and 'Maggot' (Daniel Jeary), as well as their commanding officer with the ever pixelated out face were fun to follow around. I love their initial hesitance to use firearms on the defenceless infected civilians, often resorting to their batons to beat people back, I also loved how they slowly begin to lose their cool as the events of the film progress.

All Hallows' Eve (2013) - Horror Anthology Film Review

I think the danger of me being left to my own devices and choosing the films I will watch for review is that as I am such a huge fan of anthologies that is what I naturally gravitate towards. Earlier this week was my review of Creepshow 2 and now comes a review of All Hallow's Eve. This was written and directed by Damien Leone and features his wonderfully creepy creation, Art the Clown. This clown first originated in a 2008 short film and proved to be so popular that he went on to star in his own short (both of which make up segments here), then from there he was made into a central antagonist in this anthology, before finally getting his own proper feature length film with 2016's Terrifier. That proved to be popular enough that a sequel is currently in the process of being made.

In a somewhat refreshing change the wrap-around story isn't merely there as a way to introduce the short films, instead it shares roughly the same amount of screen time as any of the three segments. In it, Sarah (Katie Maguire - Terrifier) is babysitting two children of her friends, and they have just returned from trick or treating. One of them is sorting through his treat bag when he notices a strange VHS tape in with his sweets, though has no memory of anyone giving him this. Him and his sister Tia (Sydney Freihofer) beg Sarah to let them watch the tape, figuring it will be a horror film. Watching it they find a disturbing short film. This wrap-around eventually has Sarah putting the kids to bed while she decides to carry on watching the film. With each film that passes more and more strange things start occurring within the house.
As a set up for the different segments this did a tremendous job, in fact I preferred this to two of the actual segments. It's Halloween for one, and that is always a great time to set a horror film, but it is also the best shot and most brightly lit part of All Hallows' Eve. It culminates in a moment that brought to mind the end of The League of Gentlemen's Christmas special, it was obvious this is where things would go but it was suitably messed up and the perfect way to finish. The three segments themselves are a bit more patchy in quality, likely due to them pulling on some of Leone's earlier works.

The first is eleven minutes and titled The 9th Circle, it concerns a woman waiting in an underground railway station's waiting room. She notices a man dressed as a creepy clown (Mike Giannelli). It isn't long before she has been attacked by him and drugged. Waking up deep in the underground with a chain around her neck she encounters other kidnapped woman, together they make a descent into the dark abandoned tunnels in order to try and find the source of their chains so that they can figure out how to free themselves. In general I liked the idea behind this one, there is a trippy nightmarish vibe, and despite featuring the first appearance of Art he only appears in the very first scene. This includes no end of mutant and grotesque masked wearing creatures. It had some good moments, the initial train station scene was excellent, as was the scene set in the room with the chained women. The special effects did leave a lot to be desired, amputations and a slit open belly looked extremely fake, but I did think the protagonist (played by Kayla Lian) was good in her role.

The Pit (2013) - Horror Film Review

I recently saw Chad Crawford Kinkle's latest horror film Dementer and realised he was also responsible for another cult based horror, the excellently titled Jug Face. I had heard of that and having enjoyed Dementer knew I had to see it. Well since I first heard of it, it had changed its title to the much less intriguing The Pit, but my interest was already taken and so here are my thoughts on it.

The film takes place within the woodland commune of a cult whose members worship the entity that resides within a pit, one which in exchange for the occasional sacrifice offers the group the cure to all their maladies. The next sacrifice is always chosen by the potter, simple Dawai (Sean Bridgers - The Woman). He receives a vision and then creates a (formally titular) jug that bears the face of the chosen. When Ada (Lauren Ashley Carter - The Woman), having recently discovered she's pregnant at the hands of her brother, Jessaby (Daniel Manche - The Girl Next Door) learns she is the next to be chosen she secretly hides her jug in the woods. This sets up a chain of events that threatens to destroy the commune she is a part of.

The Pit has the feeling of a Shakespearean tragedy to it, with the way that many of the events of the story are directly caused by the actions of the protagonist. Ada is hard to really root for, if incest isn't enough to damage her character you then have the multitude of deaths that occur as a result of her actions. The cult in Dementer had been left far behind, there was always a question if there was anything supernatural at all going on in this one. With The Pit there is unquestionably supernatural elements. The pit itself is just shown to bubble occasionally, but Ada is cursed with seeing through the entities eyes when it kills, something that is always shown in first person perspective. Being an indie horror I think that was the right choice to make. Throughout the special effects are practical based and look good. From contact lenses to make eyes look milky white, to some throat slashings, is all fitting with the vibe.

Banshee Chapter (2013) - Horror Film Review

I've had the intention to watch Banshee Chapter for a while now, discovering its existence while reading a list of the scariest horror film to be inspired by the works of H.P Lovecraft. With zero screeners currently waiting to be watched for reviewed I decide to finally check it out. This was the directorial debut of Blair Erickson who also wrote this, based off a story created by Daniel J. Healy. Despite a reliance on jump scares this was a pretty decent horror.

Anne (Katia Winter - Sleepy Hollow TV series, Dexter) is an investigative journalist who discovers an old university friend has vanished in mysterious circumstances, and so she decides to try and find out what happened. Her friend had managed to get hold of a top secret government created drug that been used in their illegal MK Ultra experiments in the 1970s. He had decided to film himself while on it as part of the research he was carrying out. The recorded footage showed him increasingly paranoid that someone was trying to get into his house, and then alarmed when a strange broadcast started playing on his radio. He vanished after this, and his friend who had been filming him and who had been suspected of murdering the man disappeared a few days later himself. Anne's investigation leads her to a counter-culture author, Thomas Blackburn (Ted Levine - Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Shutter Island) and after they both take the drug (her being tricked into doing so) they begin to experience the same nightmare visions that her friend seemed to have had right before he vanished.

To begin with it felt like Banshee Chapter might be a found footage, instead it is more traditionally shot for the most part but does feature elements from that genre. Early on in the movie Anne discovers an old beta-max cassette tape that had recordings of the governments experiments. This grainy black and white footage is interspersed throughout the movie, even popping up directly after the film's ending. This had some of the more freaky moments. As for Anne and Thomas the horror there is more often than not jump scares. Usually Anne will be at a freaky location (abandoned house, underground bunker etc) and will suddenly see a grotesque figure looming out the darkness, accompanied by a loud screech. It was effective but was a bit one note as this seemed to be the exclamation point that always preceded the characters moving on to a new location.

The camera work was a bit strange, while this settle down into a more traditionally shot movie the camera is still constantly swaying around as if it is being held by someone. This gave a voyeuristic feel at times which worked quite well in the context of the protagonists convinced they are being followed by something unseen. 

Gears of War: Judgement (2013) - Sci-fi Video Game Review (XBox 360)

At some point last year I decided I was going to play through all the military sci-fi action game Gears of War. I believe there are five mainline games as well as spin-off Gears of War: Judgement which serves as a prequel, taking place before the rest of the games (some strategy games to but I have no interest in those). Due to that I started with Judgement and was disappointed to see this really did feel like a spin-off. The story is very low stakes even if I did like the way it was told. The game takes a far more arcade like approach to its gameplay leading to an often bland experience that favours enemy encounters over any kind of variation.

Gears of War takes place on a planet that is in the middle of an apocalyptic war. During an event known as 'Emergence Day' an army of monsters named The Locust unexpectedly poured forth from within the planet. The first Gears of War game took place fourteen years after this event but Judgement occurs much sooner to that. You play as the four members of Kilo squad with each chapter having you playing as different member. Kilo squad is made up of the wise cracking engineer Baird, former 'Thrashball' player Cole, the gruff former UIR soldier Paduk, and fresh cadet, Sofia. In the present the group are on trial due to the unauthorised use of a rare lightmass missile. The game's six chapters then take place as flashbacks, with each squad member in turn recounting how they came to disobey orders and fire the missile.

I hate the way this game was designed, it was by far the most off putting aspect of Judgement. Where before you would have large levels that featured a lot of set pieces and variation here instead you get short snappy missions that range from around five to ten minutes in length. This makes the game feel like the sort of one you would get on a handheld console, one designed for brief spurts of play. I hated the flow of the game constantly getting interrupted with the score screen, and I hated the option to have additional challenges. At the start of each mission you get the option to change some of the mechanics, it is dressed up in game as the character you are currently controlling disputing the official testimony during their court case. I found more often than not it just made things more frustrating, while adding little to nothing to the dull story. It doesn't help that the locations you travel to are bland and lifeless. During the course of the game you go to a military academy, a scientist's mansion, an old town, a naval base and various other places. For the console the game is running on these all look nice enough but they follow a very similar pattern in how they play out with minimal effort to make them stand out much from each other, aside from one that had you wearing a small mech suit.

Zombies, Run!: Season 2 (2013) - Zombie Running App Review

I'm an infrequent runner, and when I do run it is only around a mile I am able to do. The thing that gets me to run in the outdoors is Zombies, Run! This running aid, created in 2012 gives you the incentive to jog by framing you as a 'runner' in a post-apocalyptic Britain in which a zombie plague was unleashed. Each episode taking the form of a small story, while also granting resources in which to upgrade a base. There will be spoilers for season 1 to follow. 

The first season ended dramatically with Able township's Runner 5 (the character you play as) being forced to seek sanctuary at New Canton, a community of people who were your adversaries for much of the season. It soon becomes clear there is a far bigger danger out there than this group, and putting differences aside Able teams up with New Canton in order to try and stop a mad scientist who has developed a device that lets him control the undead...

Season 1 was made up of 23 missions, this time around there are 45 main line missions, 16 side missions, and even 3 Halloween missions. That meant there was far more variation, and far more time to try and tell a more detailed and in depth story. What I enjoyed so much about season 1 was that many of the missions took place in woodland, useful as in the real world for that is the location I run around. For season 2 it felt like variation was the order of the day, throughout the main line missions you infiltrate a beached ocean liner, find yourself captive in several different places, including a prison complex, and you even get a couple of missions that are set in London. You encounter spies, murderers,cannibals, the intelligent dead and some thrilling in mission chases. There seemed to be a lot more characters but all were distinctive enough that it never got confusing as to who was who, even with me having taken around five year to get through it all! As bigger as the story is I did miss the more down to earth feel of the first season, though it was cool that the main story is wrapped up by the end of this, even if this season ends on a huge cliffhanger.

WNUF Halloween Special (2013) - Comedy Horror Film Review

WNUF Halloween Special is a found footage comedy horror co-directed and co-written by Chris LaMartina (What Happens Next Will Scare You, President's Day) that leans in hard to its premise with the film not once breaking the illusion of being the contents of a VHS tape. There is no typical intro blurb on a black screen, there are no end credits, instead this tries to give an authentic feeling of eighties TV exaggerated for comedic effect.

In 1987 WNUF TV put out a Halloween Special. News anchor Frank Stewart (Paul Fahrenkopf - President's Day) was reporting live from a house in which two parents were murdered by their child some twenty years previously. His intention was to explore the house, alongside a priest (Robert Long II - Malice: Origin) and two psychic investigators, Louis (Brian St. August - Zombie Doomsday) and Claire (Helenmary Ball - What Happens Next Will Scare You). Over eighty five minutes this investigation is shown, around plenty of ad breaks and news reports.

Due to sticking to the format of a pre-recorded broadcast this found footage is full of adverts, those coming here purely for the main storyline may be disappointed to find that only really constitutes about fifteen to twenty minutes of the whole piece. It's a good ten minutes before we are even first introduced to Frank Stewart. I think it may have been designed to be one of the soft humour ideas here but most of the horror that occurs takes place during ad breaks. On a few occasions it comes back to the house to reveal things had happened while we were stuck watching adverts. I appreciate sticking so rigidly to its authenticity but did lead to a stop and start approach to the main plot. Whenever things started to get moving they would then get railroaded with yet more adverts.

Omnivores (2013) - Horror Film Review

I have to get this out the way to begin with - the screener I received for review didn't have any subtitles, and as this was a Spanish horror that caused quite the problem for me. The sole word I know of Spanish is 'si' so that didn't really get me too far. I could have simply not reviewed this, I could have also asked for a screener with subtitles, but as I had scheduled in this movie for review anyways I decided to press ahead. As it is this wasn't the first film I have reviewed in which I didn't really know what was going on, that would be Turkish horror Baskin,which at least had a lot going on visually. Needless to say, take this review with this information in mind as I'm sure if it had been understandable it would have at least a single point higher rating.

This story is put together from my understanding of the film. After a boy's mother dies he is left with no choice but to consume her in order to not starve to death, eventually he is discovered and rescued by someone else. This child either grew up to be a wealthy businessman, or he grew up to be a butcher (I'm not sure which). In present day the wealthy businessman offers his rich clients a delicacy that is very hard to find, and also quite illegal. His butcher abducts people from off the streets and slices them up for food. A food critic (Mario de la Rosa - Hellboy, Terminator: Dark Fate) discovers all this and decides to check it out for himself, with the possible aim of secretly trying to find a way to stop it.

It doesn't take an understanding of the Spanish language to know this really wasn't my type of horror. Consumption of human flesh as a horror topic ranks up there with insects as one of my least favourite types of horror. In real life I really like meat, I often don't feel like a meal is a meal unless it contains some sort of meat. The idea of eating human flesh though is something repulsive, and so I felt queasy throughout Omnivores. This by default made me not like the film, I didn't enjoy the topic, and I was glad when it was all over. That is just me though, ignore that if it is the sort of thing that does appeal.

The Devil Brigade (2013) by Toni Odell - Horror Book Review

My digital pile of eBooks sent to me for review are an eternal fountain of shame, so it is always nice to finally get around to reading more of them. Toni Odell's The Devil Brigade I recieved way back in 2013, that sweet time of pre-apocalypse. This is a novella, and was the first in a planned series of books I believe. As such it serves as a kind of prologue to a much larger story.

It is the 1890's and Ringmaster Tom journeys around the back towns of America with his travelling freak show. His star attractions include twin little people, a mute wolfman, an obese man, and Ben, who Tom touts as 'Bubonic Boy: Black Death - Alive!' It turns out that Tom, at some point in the past made a Devil of a deal to fund his freak show ambitions, but now, his debtor has returned to ensure Tom keeps up his side of the bargain.

The aim of this novella seemed to be to get various characters to the certain places and roles they needed to be for the next installment of the series, a Phantom Menace if you will. Ben is the protagonist here, and it is a chance encounter with a mysterious young woman that starts off his story proper. The majority of The Devil Brigade takes place at the carnival and campgrounds the show are currently placed at. Tom is soon shown to be a nasty character, ruling his charges by physical and verbal abuse. His actions are eclipsed by a much larger in scope terror. A few scenes are set at the headquarters of this larger adversary, without going into details these parts had the more memorable moments of horror.

The plot initially appeared to be one thing, but then something happens at the start of the third act that really gets the story running. It all ends a bit abruptly with a lot of story threads hanging loose which cements the fact this was designed as a springboard rather than being a totally self contained tale. This can most keenly be witnessed with the character of Michael, he gets several chapters to himself, with what happens in them seemingly unrelated to the main story, at least to begin with, even though there is never any crossover.

The Devil Brigade was an easy book to read, and became quite descriptive when it wanted to be. While the story on its own felt a little incomplete it did set up the hints of a much larger 'good vs evil' story where both sides had grey areas to their ideologies. The Devil Brigade can be found at various sites, including Amazon.

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Rise of the Zombie (2013) - Horror Film Review

I gave myself a week off from reviewing things sent my way to instead choose films myself to watch. Getting back to basics I figured I should watch a zombie film, so chose Indian horror Rise of the Zombie. It looked like it wasn't going to be much good, and boy was my instinct right!

Neil Parker (Luke Kenny, who co-directed this with writer Devaki Singh) is a wildlife photographer in India whose passion for his job often causes problems with his friends and family. He has a habit of disappearing on assignments for days at a time without letting anyone know where he is going, and after returning from one such trip his exasperated girlfriend Vinny (Kirti Kulhari) finally dumps him. Neil responds by doing what he does best, heading off to the forest to take photos. While there however he is bitten by a strange insect, the bite gets infected and Neil starts to find himself slowly transforming...

Rise of the Zombie is a horror that really doesn't know how to set its priorities. It is frustrating in this respect as it isn't a terrible film, there are at least a few good things going for it. Despite being just under an hour and a half this was very dull with not much at all going on. The horror doesn't really even begin until just under halfway through and due to the weird style of directing and editing the horror is often unsatisfactory. There is a bizarre amount of filler here, one very obvious example is an extended dance montage in a club that focuses on a girl dressed as a 'sexy' nurse. Not only did this scene have nothing to do with anything but Neil himself barely even features in it. This whole sequence features no dialogue and just felt like it was there for the sake of being there. There is so much senseless filler here that there isn't really a story until there is only about fifteen minutes left. I was concerned that this wasn't enough time and it turns out I was right. As the minutes counted down time was really running out, which had the weird outcome that the story literally doesn't end. It fades to credits as various plot threads are still occurring, meaning there is zero resolution for both the plight of Neil, and his girlfriends journey to discover where he has gone to! With so much not happening for most the run time to then try and stuff an entire films worth of story into the finale is plain weird.

The Frankenstein Theory (2013) - Found Footage Horror Film Review

I love getting recommendations as it really is an opportunity to see something I would have otherwise missed. Back in July when putting up my review of the anthology film Tales of Frankenstein I received a comment on my Facebook page from Mikal CG saying I should check out the Andrew Weiner directed movie The Frankenstein Theory. This is a found footage horror with a premise that had me hooked right away, having seen it, it does suffer many of the pitfalls this type of movie often brings with it, yet I also found the setting, and the mystery to be worth the watch.

Professor Jonathan Venkenhein (Kris Lemche - Final Destination 3, Ginger Snaps) has become obsessed with a theory that most people thinks is insane. He believes that the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was actually an account of a real life event that was disguised as fiction. This wild theory of his has caused him to be kicked out of university, as well as put a strain on his relationship with his girlfriend. In a last ditch attempt to show the world he isn't crazy he has put together a small film crew, and with them decides to head up into Antarctica in order to get documented proof that this creature does in fact exist...

I loved the idea behind this, within the context of a found footage it really was something different. With found footage though the more believable the acting, and the more believable the footage is, the more creepy it can feel. It starts off well enough with the traditional text on screen giving the set-up, but then it doesn't explain just how this footage came to be found and pieced together. Either the footage can just be shown as it was without context, or it can be edited together to make a cohesive story with an explanation given. Here it is the later, the story flows naturally, there is text on screen to indicate whenever it is a new day, yet it has some artistic licence with the inclusion of music playing at times. Music by Beethoven appears at a few points, while music plays out over the end credits. It fits the film well, and makes for a good ending, but I couldn't help but be removed slightly by wondering just who decided to add music to what was a tragic event, while they were editing the footage together.

Appalachian Undead (2013) - Zombie Anthology Book Review

September marks the Apex Back Catalog Blog Tour which pretty much sums itself up with the title. Apex Publications have published around 70 science fiction, fantasy, and horror books since it was created in 2004. Their intention is to show off their back catalogue by getting a review of one of their older books for every day of September. I was invited to participate and after spotting zombie anthology book Appalachian Undead in their catalogue I just had to do a review of it. Anthologies often have themes and for this one unsurprisingly the theme is zombie stories that occur in remote feeling Appalachia in America.

So within this book are twenty different short stories about the undead, by a variety of authors, most of which I had never heard of. Usually there is at least one bad story, it is the law of averages, here though there were not any bad stories. Sure some were a bit predictable, some ended in ways I didn't particularly agree with, and some were not that exciting, but none of them were badly written or downright off putting. The Appalachians are known for their isolated communities and so many of these stories feed into this isolation, and sense of things being done differently.
This kicks off with When Granny Comes Marchin' Home Again by Elizabeth Massie which also begins a trend of older people being the focus of a few of these shorts. Here an old lady tries to perfect a potion that will allow her to cheat death. This was a good start. Another one revolving around an elderly lady was Company's Coming by Ronald Kelly that uses the idea of the undead as an analogy for racism, with a lady hiding some zombies from a bloodthirsty posse. The best of the stories based on old women was the fantastic Calling Death by Jonathan Maberry in which we slowly learn the chilling reason why there is a perpetual sound of digging and moaning coming from an old collapsed mine, I loved the ending of this one.

Darkness Comes (2013) - Horror Film Review

Darkness Comes (also known as Dying Light) is an indie Scottish horror that was directed by David Newbigging with a story by Gordon Mclean. This manages to do a heck of a lot with very little and works wonders as a horror due to the great cinematography and use of light and shadow.

Eddie (Owen Whitelaw) thinks it is his lucky day when he hooks up with beautiful stranger Suze (Kelly Wenham - Dead Set). She takes him to a dilapidated room in an abandoned building but rather than have sex she instead injects him with a syringe full of a mysterious drug. Tying him to a bed frame Suze then proceeds to carve runic symbols into his chest, it seems he is the key ingredient in some sort of Satanic ritual. Locked in a dark room with a psycho Eddie must try and find a way to escape, before the darkness comes...

I initially thought this would fall into the torture porn genre, it all feels very Saw/Hostel like to begin with. The entire film takes place in the one sparse room, the only furniture being a bed frame, the only illumination coming from one dim light bulb. At just over an hour long this is shorter than most feature films, even so I wondered if this could remain involving for the whole duration. Thankfully it does, this is down to the unrelenting horror that starts a few minutes in and never lets up. The strongest element here is the oppressive unrelenting score that grinds its way into your mind, it perfectly compliments the grubby otherworldly seeming room.